Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-04-10

man proved how gentle and devoted be
could be. He showed beyond a doubt tina
he both could and did see whether a lady
was comfortable or not. When the neigh
bors gathered at Sans funeral, in the
kindly country fashion, Edgerly took MS
! place with the Carstones beside BROWNIE
as if he had a right there.
Then afterward, when Brownie was ne
ginning to be herself again, he stald latei
than usual one evening. When he went
away he boldly kissed her good night De
fore all the folk!
Brownie blushed and pouted slightly
and drew back.
.'Oh. come now,' said he. "When
Young lady throws herself into n
arms in the presence Of a third party, you
know
Brownie was suppressed.
Then he went away for a few days.
"What have you done with your forget
me-not ring, BrOwnie?" he asked when he
came back.
CTS gone" she answered m%ournfully.
~ wore il all the same and never took 1t
off. But | was robbed of it that DAY
that day.
"Oh, well, don't mind about it."
Next there was silence. Robert broke
II with a remark as follows, to wit:
''I have been away from England a year
and a halt. If | don't get out of this hea-
thenish country soon, i shall forget now
civilized people eat"
Brownie looked up.
I'm going back in January, going
home to stay this time"
Brownie gave a start.
You'll break your heart about me, l
know, if | leave you here
Don't you think you are a little mean
to say that" she asked.
80 | suppose / shall have to take you
over to England with me-"
Which he did. She made him as sweet,
as rue a wife, yea, and as fair and bright,
as ever graced a stately home,
For ShiIerv, the faithful, the untiring,
her existence moved on as though life was
never to end for her. She worked and
thought for them all, and for everybody,
without a stopping or a breathing space.
Cetween herself and Brownies husband a
tie of friendship grew that became only
stronger as he was older. She had not a
brother by blood whose devotion to her
was as enthusiastic as Roberts. Ones ia
milairs and kin are often the ones who are
the most blind TO the best that Is IN him.
1t was surely so with Shirley, who was
used to make so little of herself.
She had not the leisure time to begin her
poem rs yet. Not yet.
The power her father and the master dis
cerned in her had forced development IN
other ways than they had thought. The
mother and younger children remained still
TO be worked for. She and they had still
to live from hand to mouth.
So newspaper woman she was and re-
manned. But she degraded her calling to
no mean or spiteful or shallow ends. Long
fellow tells how the mechanic Albrecht
Durer, with his stylus, sang the nobility
of labor to the rich and stupid Nurember-
gers till he startled them from their bOur-
geoise content. Shirley sang the same song
with her pen. 1t was a pen that cut
through the transient down to the eternal
good and truth that are the only abiding
realities. She sang the worth OF wise
work, the ladyhoOd and gentlemanhoOd
that are above and greater than the accl-
dent of occupation, or of wealth and pow.
erty. To he sincere, TO be gentle and Just
and helpful TO Others, to spend time IN
learning only the old things that are worth
kuowing-this was the golden song of
Shirley's pen.
So she kept her life high and valiant.
She was not unhappy lin those years.
The busy are never wholly miserable. II
only she could have poured out out her
thoughts in the marvellous poem That had
lowered in her brain SO long she could have
quite put the old sorrow aside. As the
years went on, she could even have come
ut last to regard rs comedy the tragedy OF
her lite. TOiling with enthusiasm at the
work one has chosen is greater than happl'
ness or riches yea, greaLerthan love icselL.
As it was, though, her life was ST. hard,
so different from all she had planned or
dreamed of, twenty years before. Robert
Edgerly came faithfully over the water to
see her every year or two, sometimes with
Brownie, sometimes without. Once, too,
the charming old father came and his visit
was like an oasis in her desert ef toll.
One winter, when Shirley went to Wash
ingtOn for The MOrAiRg Herald, RObt. Edg-
eIly went with her. She was now q dis
tinguished newspaper wOmOn. Her de-
sCrlptiOn of events Wa at once brilliant
and accurate. UnmOved at all times by
the glOrics of the reign of bOSh everywhere
about her, she saw fact, aud kept to it.
The rising star in American politics ut
this time was 4 congressman from n west
ern state. lie was not precisely what we
call Il man OF the people, though he had
made his own way in the world. But it
u poor way rs far rs getting riches was
concerned. lie might have become wealthy
q dozen times, but he held in burning con-
tempt the methods of enriching himself
which comes 20 easy TO many men in pub
lie life. He was a man incOrruptible by
money in any shape. There had been that
i'll his life which made the ease aud wealth
men sighed for, to he no more than vile
drOss for him. What did he care for money?
In this country a poor man must be q
powerful man intellectually, and have very
winning ways to impress himself sufiici-
emily on his fellow ireemen to get their
votes in the beginning. They demand
either uncommon talent and honesty or
uncommon wealth, one or the other.
The powerful brain, the winning ways
the new representative of the people had.
He was known to have sprung from the so
called upper rank of life. He was a per-
son OF the highest culture, and of wide
knowledge of men. At the same time
there was an air about him that somewhat
warned off the commonplace and the vul-
gar curious from approaching him famil-
iarly. In brief, he was not one on whom
you would advance without an introduce
ton, and say IN II frank and beautiful
American way:
'Say, mister, what might your business
be-"
He lost his election through a small cir
cumstance. He ordered a broiled beef
steak at a lettle rustic wayside inn. His
opponent got windo of it and played itupon
a thousand strings, till the independent vo-
tiers rose to a man and said:
''We'l have no SIGH stuck up 'ristOcrat
holdin' Office in this Heestrick. A man
that fried beefsteak amt good enough fur,